At the movie theater, what happens at the end when the
closing credits begin to roll? It's not a trick question.
You know the answer. Everyone leaves.
Apparently we're not very interested to know the names of
those people who spent three to four years of their life to
entertain us For about 120 minutes, Everyone leaves.
That is, unless you're watching a Marvel movie.
During COVID, many of you took up new hobbies.
Some of you became woodworkers or started to become bakers of
bread. I, on the other hand, enjoyed a
Marvel movie marathon during our lockdown.
We were in Dubai. Lockdown lasted a few months and
so each week we'd watch a movie. At the time, we lived in a big
villa with another couple and two Single Ladies from our
church. We're all together, and so after
dinner together, we'd part ways. The ladies would go upstairs,
they'd watch Downton Abbey. The men would stay downstairs to
watch Marvel movies. In chronological order, you can
pick you have a British historical drama or superheroes
saving the world. You can decide for yourself
which one was more edifying at the movies.
After a Marvel movie, no one moves because after the closing
credits roll, there's a post credits scene.
Often these include little Easter eggs, little hints that
foreshadow the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or
little hints that resolve plot lines of movies past.
When you watch a post credits movie scene, it makes you wonder
and think, wait a second. It makes you anticipate
something that might be coming in the future.
Sometimes it makes you rethink the whole movie.
Today, as we finish the book of Ruth, don't miss the important
post credits scene while the book of Ruth.
And if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn there.
It's a microscopic look as we've talked about at 1 little family
in the little town of Bethlehem. The post credits scene, the
epilogue actually zooms out. It zooms out from that one
little family facing hardships. It zooms out of the little town
of Bethlehem. It zooms out of the nation of
Israel. It even bursts out far into
future generations. It even zooms out to us.
So turn your Bible to Ruth Chapter 4.
A brief, brief recap before we consider it.
Remember, this is a story of two widows, 2 poor widows, Naomi and
Ruth. They're in need of redemption
and they've met Boaz. And Boaz in chapter 3 said he
was willing and able to redeem. And that's how we ended chapter
3. Today we consider the final
scene, chapter 4. How will Boaz settle the matter?
How will scene 4 end? As I read Ruth Chapter 4, hear
the word of the Lord. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate
and sat down there, and behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had
spoken came by. So Boaz said, turn a side,
friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat
down, and he took ten men of this elders of the city and
said, sit down here. So they sat down.
Then he said to the Redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from
the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged
to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of
it and say buy it in the presence of those sitting here
and in the presence of the elders of my people.
If you will redeem it, redeem it.
But if you will not, tell me that, I may know, for there is
no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.
And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, The day you buy
the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the
Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name
of the dead in his inheritance. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot
redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.
Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem
it. Now this was the custom in
former times in Israel concerning redeeming and
exchanging to confirm a transaction.
The one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, And this
was the manner of attesting in Israel.
So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, he
drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and
all the people, You are witnesses this day that I have
bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech,
and all that belonged to Killian, and to Malon also Ruth
the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife to
perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance, that the
name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and
from the gate of his native place.
You this is this day then all the people who are at the gate
and the elder said we are witnesses.
May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like
Rachel and Leah, who together built up the House of Israel.
May you act worthily in Ephratha and be renowned in Bethlehem.
And may your house be like the House of Perez, whom Tamar
bordered Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will
give you by this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth and she became
his wife, and he went into her. And the Lord gave her
conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi,
Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a
Redeemer. And may his name be renowned in
Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of
life and a nourisher of your old age.
For your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you
than seven sons, has given birth to him.
Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became
his nurse. And the women of the
neighborhood gave him a name saying a son has been born to
Naomi. They named him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Now these are the generations of Perez.
Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram Father A
Minidab, Minidab fathered Nashan, Nashan fathered Salman.
Salman fathered Boaz. Boaz fathered Obed, Obed Father
Jesse and Jesse fathered David. Friends, we've seen that Ruth is
a story of bitter Providence. And we've all tasted our own
bitter providences too, haven't we?
Those times in life when it feels like you're being pressed
on every side, or like you're walking in pitch black with no
clue where you're going, or like you just keep getting hit by one
blow after another and you're just trying to catch your
breath. Is God at work in our pain?
Is he working through our discouragements and our
disappointments? The book of Ruth reminds us that
God often does his best work behind the scenes, though his
hand is often hidden. The book of Ruth reminds us of
the subtle Providence of God, who works all things together
for our good. That's what we see God do in the
book of Ruth. He works things together for
good. The book of Ruth is a story.
It's a story from death to life, from curse to blessing, from
famine to feast, from emptiness to fullness, from barrenness to
fruitfulness, from the days when there was no king in Israel to
the greatest king of Israel. David And chapter 4 teaches us
that God providentially provides our costly redemption through
our King, Jesus Christ. Redemption.
That's what chapter 4 is all about.
But not just Ruth's redemption ours. 2 We'll consider chapter 4
and three points .1 redemption accomplished, verses 1 to 12
redemption accomplished, .2 redemption applied, verses 13 to
17 redemption applied, and .3 Redemption anticipated verses 18
to 22 first .1 Redemption accomplish verses 1 to 12 tell
of a worthy Redeemer who is willing to pay the price of our
costly redemption. Remember what Boaz swore to Ruth
at the end of chapter 3. As the Lord lives, I will redeem
you. And remember what Naomi assured
Ruth about Boaz at the end of chapter 3.
He will settle the matter today. Chapter 4 begins with Boaz
sitting at the gate. He's come to settle the matter
of roots, redemption. The gate in ancient Israel was
the place for legal business. And look who shows up to the
gate in verse one, Verse 1. Behold, the Redeemer of whom
Boaz had spoken came by. Behold, Remember, the author set
up chapter 2 in the exact same way, chapter 2, verse 4.
Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, meaning the author
wants us to know. This is not a coincidence.
The author takes us behind the scenes and shows us the hidden
hand of God at work. Friends, this is divine
Providence, that sweet doctrine that God is the one who
constantly cares for creation. God was working when Boaz was
sitting, and Boaz sees the man and he asks him to sit.
Then he asked 10 elders of the city to sit, and with everyone
seated at the gate, they're ready for business.
So Boaz tells the Redeemer, Naomi's selling the land that
belonged to Elimelech why she's selling it.
She's likely selling it because she's returned from Moab with
nothing to her name. She's a poor widow.
She can't maintain the land, She can't retain the land.
And according to the law, her family had an obligation to make
sure that the land was not lost. So Boaz presents the Redeemer
with a proposition. Look at verse 4.
But in the presence of those sitting here, if you will redeem
it, redeem it. But if you'll not, tell me, for
there's no one beside you to redeem it.
And I come after you, and the man responds quickly, I will
redeem it. But there's one more thing Boaz
says, verse 5. The day you buy the field, you
also acquire Ruth the Moabite in order to perpetuate the name of
the dead. It seems that Ruth also has a
stake in the land. So if this Redeemer buys the
field, then he also has to marry Ruth.
And if he marries Ruth, then he also has to seek to raise up an
heir for her. Put yourself in his shoes.
When you're making a large investment, maybe a large
purchase, what do you do? Well, you count the cost, you
run the numbers. Well, what's the upfront cost,
and can I afford that right now? And then what's the return on
investment? And is this a good deal?
Ultimately, the nameless Redeemer ran the numbers, and at
first he knew if he bought the land, he'd have to care for
Naomi. But once Naomi died, the land
would come to him. But with this new information,
he knew that if he bought the land, he'd have to care for
Naomi and Mary Ruth and try to have a child and feed them all.
And then in the end, that child would inherit the land, meaning
this man would have to pay the price of redemption with no
promise of financial gain in the future.
And so for this unnamed Redeemer, the cost of redemption
was too high. So in verse 6, he backs out and
he gives the right of redemption to Boaz.
And in order to understand what happens next, the author gives
us a little historical background.
Imagine if you were at the store, somebody was making a
large purchase and they took their sandal off and then handed
it to the cash register, the cashier.
You'd be thinking, wait, what is happening here?
But in Israel this would have made sense, which the author
tells us in verse 7. Transactions of redeeming and
exchanging were attested to an ancient Israel by taking off
your sandal and giving it to the other person.
So the Redeemer takes off his sandal, takes it off his foot,
passes it over, and by doing so in front of the elders, in front
of everyone else there he publicly passes on the right of
redemption to Boaz. And so Boaz turns to the 10
elders and to all the people and says, verse 9.
You are witnesses this day. He says he's bought from the
hand of Naomi all that belonged to her, and Elimelech and
Killian and Mulan, and also Ruth the Moabite.
You are witnesses this day here at the gate.
Sitting down with all the witnesses present, Boaz settles
the matter. He buys Naomi so her land won't
pass outside the Limelux clan, and he buys Ruth so her
husband's name won't be cut off so it won't be forgotten.
The matter is settled, The court is adjourned.
And back then in ancient Israel, when court adjourned, apparently
everyone prays verses 11 and 12. The scene closes with prayer.
Listen to their prayer. May the Lord make the woman who
was coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together
built up the House of Israel. May you act worthily in
Nephratha and be renowned in Bethlehem.
And may your house be like the House of Perez, whom Tamar bore
to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will
give you by this young woman. They pray for Ruth.
They pray for Ruth by looking to the past.
They asked the Lord that he'd make her fruitful like Rachel
and Leah. Those are the two wives of Jacob
who bore eight of his twelve sons, and those 12 sons would
become the 12 tribes of Israel. And then they pray for Boaz by
looking into the future. They asked the Lord to bless
Boaz, who's a worthy man, that he would keep acting worthily.
And they asked the Lord that Boaz, his name, would continue
on for generations to come. Keep in mind, the unnamed
Redeemer was unwilling to exchange his own inheritance to
redeem Ruth. The cost was too great.
But Boaz was willing. And now the unnamed redeemer's
name is forgotten, but the name of Boaz continues in renown.
Boaz is a worthy Redeemer who was willing to pay the price for
Ruth's costly redemption. And in that we see a picture of
our Redeemer of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, Jesus
Christ is a worthy Redeemer who was willing to pay the price for
our costly redemption. What a precious title Redeemer.
It reminds us that He saved us and at great cost to himself.
A cost he was more than willing to pay.
What was the price that God paid for the redemption of His people
on the cross? God did not spare his only Son,
Jesus Christ, but gave himself up for our salvation.
And Christ himself obtained the Church by his own blood.
He shed his blood, He died for our sins.
He bore God's wrath for our salvation, and he rose again.
And if you're united to him by faith, then your inheritance,
your eternal inheritance is secure.
You'll never be cut off because you are now a fellow heir with
Jesus Christ. Friend, if you're not a
Christian, would you believe in the only Redeemer who was able
and willing to pay the price for your redemption?
Would you trust in Him and turn from your sins?
And church, it's good to remember what God has done for
us in the Gospel. Consider even further the cost
of your redemption. You were dead in the grave.
To bring you to life, Christ had to die himself.
You were empty, living a hopeless life, and to fill you
up, Christ had to empty himself. You were destined for wrath and
judgement and eternal condemnation.
And to free you from wrath, Christ had to bear the wrath
himself. That's what God's done for you
in the gospel. And if God didn't spare his own
Son for your salvation, will he not also, with Christ,
graciously give you all things? Think for a moment about how
God's generosity to you in the Gospel reframes how you receive
the bitter Providence that God sends you.
Like when you meet the trials of various kinds that every
Christian faces unexplained sickness, job loss,
discouragement, depression, conflict in your family or with
your friends. Like when you're reviled and
persecuted. Like so many Christians around
the world face when you're slandered, denied promotions,
even shunned from your family. Like when you meet the troubles
of the Book of Ruth, the loss of your security, the loss of a
loved one. Even the unexplained inability
to have a child like when you face the bitter Providence that
you face today, how do you respond?
How can we possibly rejoice in the midst of those difficulties
and discouragements? How can you, Christian, count it
all as joy as we're called to brothers and sisters?
The answer is only by faith. Only by believing that the God
who gave up his only Son for your costly redemption, that
he's the same God who gives good gifts to his children.
And that's what the book of Ruth teaches us.
It teaches us that the way to walk through bitter Providence
is to keep walking back to the Lord by faith, patiently
trusting the Lord that his good purposes will be revealed in due
time. In due time, Christian God,
who's a restorer of life, will restore to you the years the
locusts have eaten. He will make up for everything
you've ever lost. He will Himself restore,
confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
He's accomplished your redemption.
You can trust Him with every trial.
In verses 13 to 17, we see .2 Redemption applied, Redemption
applied. We see the fruit of redemption.
So far every chapter in Ruth has ended with barley.
How does scene 4 end? Look at verse 13.
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her
and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son.
Scene 4 doesn't end with barley, it ends with a baby.
After the wedding came the baby shower.
Children are a gift from the Lord and children are gifts
given by the Lord. That's what the author says.
The Lord gave Ruth conception. Notice the author tells us the
Lord did this. Ordinarily in the book of Ruth,
the hand of God is hidden behind phrases like behold or back.
In chapter 2, she happened to come to the part of the field
belonging to Boaz. In fact, the author only
explicitly mentions the Lord doing something two times in the
book of Ruth. Turn quickly.
Chapter one, verse 6. Naomi heard that the Lord had
visited his people and given them food.
That's the first instance God gave them bread in Bethlehem.
Here in chapter 4 is the second incense the Lord gave Ruth
conception 2 explicit acts of God and they're both regarding
fertility. One in chapter 1, one in chapter
4, meaning they function as bookends to the book 1 marks the
end of the famine. The other marks the end of
infertility. For remember back to chapter 1,
Ruth had been married 10 years with no children.
The author implied there she was unable to have children.
What are these bookends then teach us?
Together these two acts teach us that the Lord is the one who
providentially provides for his people.
And how does God providentially provide for his people?
According to the book of Ruth, one of the ways God provides is
through prayer. Now, God doesn't need our
prayers, but we need to pray. And God doesn't need our
prayers, but he's chosen to govern the world through
secondary means, like the prayers of his people.
There are five prayers in the book of Ruth and did you know
that God answers every single one of them?
Chapter 1 Naomi prays that the Lord would provide Ruth rest in
the House of her husband. Chapter 2 Boaz prays that the
Lord would reward Ruth for her loyalty to Naomi.
In chapter 2 also Naomi prays that the Lord would bless Boaz.
And in chapter 3 Boaz prays that the Lord would bless Ruth.
And in chapter 4, which we just read, the people pray for Ruth
to have a baby and for Boaz, his name to be renowned in
Bethlehem. And all of these prayers
culminate in chapter 4, verse 13, as the Lord answers with the
blessing of a baby. God is sovereign over
everything. And the God who's sovereign over
everything commands us to pray about everything.
We're commanded. Ask, seek, knock.
We're even rebuked you have not because you asked not.
Psalm 65 calls the Lord. You who hear prayer that should
make us marvel. God hears our prayers and he
answers them. I wonder who the first person
you call is when you're in trouble, first person comes to
your mind, or who's the most important person in your
contacts if you need to get something done, Who's getting a
phone call? Who do you have personal access
to? Christians.
We have a personal audience with the Lord Almighty of the
universe, a personal audience. Therefore, prayers should be
like the background music for our life.
You go to the grocery store, you see a lot of people walking
around with headphones. They are literally living their
life according to a soundtrack. In a sense, that's what our
prayer lives should be like. We should always be praying.
That's what Paul says. Pray without ceasing.
Every circumstance we face should be fodder for our prayer
lives. And the Almighty God of the
universe acts through our prayers.
So church, we should pray with great expectation.
Our prayers this morning, they were not performances.
We are calling on the name of the Lord together as a church.
And as we gather tonight for our prayer meeting, our prayers are
not perfunctory. They're not just out of duty.
We are privileged to approach the throne of God with great
confidence. I wonder, what are you
personally praying for? Peace in your marriage?
Wisdom for a difficult decision? Provision for the future?
Comfort for a suffering friend? Courage to do the right thing?
Boldness to share the gospel? The salvation of your family and
friends? God hears every prayer, and
He'll answer. In the book of Ruth, we have the
privilege to see how God answers every prayer.
But I recognize that on earth this is not always the case.
Each of us sits here with many prayers that remain unanswered
prayers. Some of us have prayed for
years, maybe for decades. But brothers and sisters in
heaven will have the privilege to hear how God answered every
one of our prayers better than we could have asked or imagined.
What good might God accomplish through the prayers of His
people? After Ruth has a baby, the
author turns back to Naomi. Look at what the women say to
Naomi in verse 14. Blessed be the Lord who has not
left you this day without a Redeemer, and may His name be
renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of
life and a nourisher of your old age.
For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is more to you
than seven sons, has given birth to Him.
Does it surprise you that in the closing scene of Ruth, the
author shifts back to Naomi? If you paid attention, at the
end of every chapter, the author does this.
The author always turns back to Naomi.
It throws us off a little bit because the book is called Ruth.
But the spotlight, if you think of a play, each scene ends with
a spotlight on Naomi. She's the one who closes out the
scene. She's always left on the stage.
Why? Remember what Naomi told the
women of the town at the end of Chapter 1?
She said the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
She said the Lord has brought me back empty.
As she considered her life, she felt like God was against her.
That was her perspective in the beginning.
But in each chapter we've seen that behind the scenes, the Lord
wasn't against her. He was working for Naomi's good.
And each and each chapter we've seen that Naomi's heart was
softened to see God's kindness. And now Naomi doesn't tell the
women of the town. The women of the town tell Naomi
that she is blessed. For Naomi has a Redeemer, a
little baby who will preserve a Limelux line and provide for
Naomi in her old age. And Naomi has a daughter-in-law,
Ruth the Moabite, who clung to her, who loves her.
That's the only verb. That's the only use of the verb
love in this entire story. It's Ruth's love for Naomi.
And that means she's worth more than seven sons, a shocking
statement in a culture that prized sons.
So the scene ends in verse 16 with the baby boy sitting on
Naomi's lap. Her hands are not empty, they're
full. But just before the epilogue,
the author drops one more detail.
Verse 17, they named him the baby Obed.
He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Why does the author wait 4 chapters and then 17 verses to
tell us this one little detail, David, To understand what the
author is doing. I think a little illustration
will help. The first time I hiked up a
mountain, I learned the hard way about false peaks.
Have you ever been hiking? False peaks are miserable.
You hike up a mountain and all you can see is a peak.
When you get to the top, you realize that was not the peak.
There is another one coming. You get to the top of that one.
You exert all that effort and energy and guess what?
There's one more and you do it again and again and again until
you get to the final peak. You could ask what's the peak of
the Book of Ruth? Well, for Ruth and Boaz, it's
certainly verse 13. They get married, they have a
baby. But for Naomi, it seems it's
verse 16, also the baby. Then you read verse 17 and it
presents you with yet another peak, the final one, David.
That is King David. And we find that King David, who
played no part in the story whatsoever, appears to be the
very reason the story was ever written at all.
He's the Easter egg, he's the detail, the one discovery that
once you find it, it makes you rethink the whole book.
And once again, the author's revealing to us, the reader, the
hidden hand of God, the glorious Providence of God.
Finally .3 redemption anticipated.
The book concludes with a post credits scene, an epilogue in
the form of a genealogy. Verse 18.
Now these are the generations of Perez.
Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered
Aminidab, Aminidab fathered Nashan, Nashan fathered Salman,
Salman fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered
Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. Notice the time spanned in
chapter 4. Verses 1 to 12 take place over
one day, one day at the gate. Verses 13 to 17.
Well, those must have taken place at least over nine months.
That's how long it takes to have a baby.
And what about verses 18 to 22? Hundreds of years, 10
generations. Do you see God's hidden hand at
work all over history? Think about it in the book of
Ruth. Without the famine, Elimelech
wouldn't have sojourned to Moab. Without the sojourn, his son
Malan wouldn't have married Ruth and Moabite.
Without Malan's death, Ruth and Naomi wouldn't have returned to
Bethlehem. Without Ruth and Naomi and
Bethlehem, Ruth wouldn't happen upon Boaz's field.
And without Ruth and Boaz's meeting, there's no Obed.
And without Obed there's no David.
And therefore God's people would have remained in the days when
there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in
their own eyes. Yet as we read in Matthew 1,
without King David there be no King Jesus.
For as we heard in Matthew 1, the genealogy continues from
Ruth four. And David was the father of
Solomon, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the
father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph.
And he goes on and on and on and on in Matthew 1 until verse 16.
And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom
Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
But friends, now we've reached beyond the vision of the
original author. For the story of Ruth reaches
beyond the rest that David provided for Israel.
The rest received in Ruth is just a hint, a taste of what God
would do through the King of heaven, through Jesus Christ.
Like David, he was born in Bethlehem.
He is David's son, yet David's Lord, born miraculously of the
Virgin Mary, born to pay the price of redemption, to save his
people from their sins. Genealogies like this one force
us to zoom out. We have just a small vantage
point, a lifetime. That's it.
God works through generations, He's faithful through
generations. And we need to zoom out because
our lives often seem mundane just one day after another.
Sometimes we wonder, is it going anywhere?
And then when we look at all the various events, they seem
disparate. Is there a purpose behind any of
it? A move here, a new neighbor
there, a sickness, A promotion, a new opportunity, a new church.
How do all the pieces fit together?
The book of Ruth reminds us that though we don't know exactly how
God will work all things together for our good, we can
trust that He certainly will. Let's pray.
Father, we are grateful that even though you send us bitter
Providence, You have good purposes in our pain.
Lord, would you help us to look to Jesus Christ our King and
remember the great price that He paid for our redemption, that we
could trust You through every bitter Providence far into the
future, when you'll make all things new in Jesus name, Amen.